Help find dog, Noelle, who bolted from car after crash on I-95

Owner asks public's help finding missing dog

Submitted photo

Noelle, an Akita-husky mixed breed dog, went missing after the car she was riding in was in an accident on I-95 Aug. 27. The NJ priest who owns the dog, Rev. Lou Scurti, is asking the public's help in finding her. She is described as white with a little beige.

Noelle, an Akita-husky mixed breed dog, went missing after the car she was riding in was in an accident on I-95 Aug. 27. The NJ priest who owns the dog, Rev. Lou Scurti, is asking the public's help in finding her. She is described as white with a little beige. (Submitted photo)

Rev. Lou Scurti's Akita-husky mixed breed dog, Noelle, bolted in terror when the car in which she was riding, driven by Father Lou's cousin, was involved in a multiple-car accident on Interstate 95 on Aug 27.

Father Lou, a retired priest from Haledon, has been to Maryland to search for her and enlisted the help of his friends his cousin's friends, pet finding agencies, social media and the kind-hearted people of Perry Hall and White Marsh.

Noelle is 12 and has white fur with a little beige mixed in. Father Lou said she was rescued as a puppy in the month of September over a decade ago and was named for the Christmas holiday.

Belinda Hobson, who lives off Forge Road, in Perry Hall, has searched for Noelle almost daily since she went missing. Sometimes accompanied by family or friends, Hobson canvasses the streets off and intersecting Ebenezer Road in the Bird River vicinity of White Marsh. Hobson has not spotted Noelle. But others have.

Ida Canon lives on Vincent Farm Road and works at the White Marsh post office branch on Ebenezer Road.

"I first found out about Noelle a couple days after Hurricane Irene when someone brought a (lost dog) poster into the post office," Ida remembered.

Canon's son Tyler observed Noelle saw Noelle two times in the late evening walking across their yard. Another family friend, Brandon, saw Noelle lying near the pine tree in their side yard another day.

The day Ida Canon got the poster, Buddy Chilcoat came into the post office and told her of a beautiful white dog in his driveway. Buddy and his wife, Kitty, live next to the Richardson Farm Store on Ebenezer Road. Canon showed him the poster asking, "Was it this white dog?" It was Noelle.

Chilcoat reports the last time he saw Noelle, she was in front of the farm. Kitty Chilcoat puts out food and water for her as other area resident have done.

Chilcoat even rigged the gate to his yard so he could pull it shut from inside if she should wander in. But after a couple days of watching, he abandoned the plan. Chilcoat thinks "eventually she'll get tired and let her guard down and she'll get caught." In the meantime, the search continues and the last sighting of Noelle four days ago described her, as Chilcoat said, "skinny and dirty".

Father Lou is very appreciative of the love shown by residents in the area for his lost Noelle and is very impressed with the hospitality shown him.

He advises that If you see Noelle, don't chase her; she is skittish around strangers and doesn't like noisy traffic or the water. Father Lou says tell her to sit and hopefully she will stay put long enough for someone to get a leash on her. If you spot this dog, please call Father Lou at 973-981-5003 and Belinda Hobson at 443-912-9505.

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